Chen Chao nodded slightly without saying anything. After all, he was just a passerby and would leave when it got light.
Seeing that Chen Chao didn't introduce himself, Ye Fei worried that he might feel uneasy and comforted him, "You can rest first. You must be exhausted. Are these two your relatives?"
Chen Chao nodded.
Lin Shiyu didn't react much, but Fan Xiangyu felt a strange flutter in her heart when she saw him nod, because Ye Fei's reference to relatives also included her...
"Hmph, who wants to be related to this demon? After I evolve, I'll torture him a hundred times a day, hmmph!" Fan Xiangyu thought viciously in her heart.
Noticing the thin clothes on the three of them, Ye Fei immediately took off her scarf and put it around Lin Shiyu's neck, asking with concern, "Are you still cold?"
Lin Shiyu shook her head.
"Come sit over here and warm yourselves by the fire," Ye Fei led Chen Chao and the others to the fireside and said to a female student in school uniform, "Xiaoli, you sit over there a bit. Let's all squeeze in together."
The female student looked unwilling but象征性地moved her position a bit.
"Officer Ye, didn't you find any food today?" At this moment, a middle-aged woman looked at Ye Fei with a worried expression. Sitting beside her was an eleven or twelve-year-old girl who leaned her head on her shoulder to warm herself by the fire. From their appearance, they should be a mother and daughter.
Ye Fei shook her head and apologized, "Sorry, there were too many monsters on the street opposite today, and it was difficult to enter that supermarket. I'll try again tomorrow."
Upon hearing her words, everyone's expressions darkened a bit.
"Mom, I'm so hungry..." The eleven or twelve-year-old girl whispered softly and faintly.
The middle-aged woman gently patted her back and comforted her for a few sentences before looking up at Ye Fei with a pleading gaze and saying, "Officer Ye, do you have any food left? Just a little bit is fine."
A trace of reluctance appeared on Ye Fei's face as she reached into her hug and pulled out a white rabbit milk candy, saying, "There's only one left. Let the child eat it."
The middle-aged woman quickly took it and thanked her repeatedly.
Watching this scene, Lin Shiyu was deeply shocked. She didn't expect these ordinary survivors to live such a difficult and humble life, while she herself... had delicious rice every day, candies as snacks, pure water to drink as much as she wanted, and could take baths and enjoy a comfortable warm bed.
All of this was brought to her by Chen Chao.
If it weren't for this younger brother, she might also be living like these people, humbly like an insect.
Seeing the little girl take the white rabbit milk candy and almost stuff it into her mouth without even peeling off the wrapper, Lin Shiyu felt a trace of pity and instinctively reached into her pocket, wanting to take out the few chocolates she had been eating as snacks and give them to her.
But suddenly, her hand was grasped.
Chen Chao looked at her and gently shook his head.
Lin Shiyu felt a bit confused. Although she understood Chen Chao's meaning, she didn't understand why he wanted her to do this. For them, collecting food was very easy. Rotten corpses lurking in supermarkets and some residential buildings were nightmare-like existences for these ordinary survivors, but they were nothing to them.
Now, as long as she shared a bit of her food, she could save these people. It was a simple gesture.
She didn't understand why Chen Chao told her not to do it. However, although she couldn't figure it out, she still chose to obey and trust him.
The others couldn't help but swallow their saliva as they watched the little girl chewing the candy.
Ye Fei sighed and sat by the fire to warm herself.
In the spacious basement, the sound of the little girl chewing the milk candy was particularly loud. The middle-aged woman realized something and gently nudged the little girl, gesturing for her to finish it quickly.
The little girl quickly swallowed it.
Everyone sat by the fire, too hungry to speak, staring at the flickering flames and lost in thought. Each person was thinking about their future fate... or whether they even had a future.
Just as everything was silent, a sudden change occurred. A ordinary young man sitting next to Ye Fei abruptly stood up. The others were still staring at the flames and didn't notice until they heard Ye Fei's shout of shock and anger. They all looked up in surprise.
The young man was holding a gun—Ye Fei's gun!
"What are you doing!" Ye Fei's chest heaved violently as she looked at him in shock and anger.
The young man pointed the gun at her with a grim expression and said, "Don't come closer! Don't anyone come closer!"
Everyone except Chen Chao was stunned and didn't know what had gotten into him.
Ye Fei was afraid that the pistol might go off accidentally and said, "Put the gun down first. We can talk about it. Don't get excited."
The young man breathed heavily and said grimly, "I've already figured it out. Staying here any longer will only lead to starvation. Now I have a gun, and I can go outside to find food. I won't stay with you and slowly starve to death here, then rot!"
"Don't be impulsive. Give me the gun. I'll bring back food tomorrow," Ye Fei persuaded while quietly approaching him.
The young man quickly realized this and pointed at her forcefully, roaring, "Don't come closer! If you do, I'll shoot!"
"Okay, okay," Ye Fei immediately stopped and said gently in the negotiating tone she learned in the police force, "Don't rush. There will always be a solution. It's difficult to survive alone even if you have a gun..."
"I don't care about that! I'll die sooner or later, so I'm going all in! Even if you bring back food tomorrow, how much will it be? Enough for how many people? Everyone will still be hungry. You're a good person, and I don't want to hurt you. Don't come closer, or I really will shoot!" The young man roared grimly.
Ye Fei felt helpless and didn't know how to persuade him.
The other survivors had already scared and hidden away. Among them, a neatly dressed middle-aged man spoke up, "Xiao Liu, don't be impulsive. Let's find a solution together. If you think the food portion is not enough, we can just kick these three people out. Calm down. Even if you have a gun, it's difficult to survive alone, and there aren't many bullets left."
Xiao Liu hesitated slightly. He ignored the other words but was awakened by the last sentence. Given the size of the pistol, the magazine couldn't hold many bullets, so it was indeed not very useful. For a moment, he felt a trace of regret in his heart. But now that he had turned his face, there was no turning back.
He took a deep breath and said gloomily, "Fine, but we have to kick out these three people and this mother and daughter pair. Otherwise, even if we find food later, it still won't be enough to share."
Upon hearing his words, the middle-aged man was overjoyed. He had always wanted to kick out the mother and daughter but was embarrassed to say so. Based on his experience, he could see that his suggestion wouldn't be agreed to by Ye Fei and would even offend the mother and daughter. So, he had kept it to himself.
"No way," Ye Fei said categorically. "If we let them leave, it's like killing them. How can you do such a cruel thing?"
Xiao Liu didn't expect her to refuse so decisively, and a surge of anger welled up in his heart. He said angrily, "Is kindness useful? Can kindness fill an empty stomach? Can kindness prevent hunger? Can kindness save you from death? I just want to kill them. So what? You're a policeman. Arrest me!"
Ye Fei's cheeks turned iron-gray with anger, and the middle-aged man quickly persuaded her, "Officer Ye, just agree to him to prevent him from leaving with the pistol. Otherwise, we'll all starve to death."
"may you rot in hell!" The mother and daughter became emotionally excited upon hearing their conversation, fearing that Ye Fei would really agree. The thought of leaving here and facing those cannibalistic monsters outside stimulated their brains, and their faces distorted with excitement.
The other four survivors remained silent.
Lin Shiyu looked at Xiao Liu and the middle-aged man surnamed Huang with a dark expression, saying nothing. Anger was brewing in her eyes. If she weren't unsure of subduing Xiao Liu before he could shoot, she would have already taken action.
Fan Xiangyu, like Lin Chao, sat by the fire with a calm expression, as if the quarrel beside her did not exist at all.
…